Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame

Ernest "Slim Jim" Iverson

Inducted 2003

Walk
down any street in the Twin Cities on a summer afternoon
in the days before air conditioning, and chances are you
would hear Ernest “Slim Jim” Iverson on the
radio through the open windows.

Famed and loved throughout the region for country music
and Scandinavian songs like “Nikolina” and “The
Drifting Vistling Snow,” he was born to Norwegian
immigrants in North Dakota in 1903. Injured while working
in the Texas oil fields in 1925, he turned to music, and
was dubbed “Slim Jim” by his Wichita Falls,
Texas, radio station for his lean, six-foot, four-inch frame.
In 1927 he moved to WAAU Omaha, Nebraska, appearing as the
“Master Troubadour” before becoming “Slim
Jim” again at WRHM (now WWTC) Minneapolis/Saint Paul
in 1932. Broadcasting with his brother Clarence (“The
Vagabond Kid”), his noontime program was a favorite
throughout the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s on several
Twin Cities and regional stations, including WDGY, KSTP,
WLOL, and KEYD. He also appeared on experimental WDGY telecasts
in the 1930s, and hosted the hour-long “Slim Jim’s
Westerners” on what is now KMSP TV Minneapolis/Saint
Paul in the 1950s. His death, at the age of 55, in 1958 was mourned by legions
of fans.